At the end of 2004, a new designer drug called ‘Explosion’ appeared in the Netherlands. This new drug is sold as a liquid via the internet and in Dutch ‘smartshops’, stores selling non-scheduled psychoactive substances. The product is advertised as a ‘room odorizer’ and is sold in plastic tubes containing 5 ml of liquid. The tubes cost between €10 and €15 ($13–$20) and do not present any information about the composition of Explosion; they contain only a label saying ‘Room odorizer Vanilla. Do not ingest’ and ‘Keep away from children. Never use more than one bottle’. In spite of this label, users mention that they ingest the liquid to reach the intended psychoactive effect.[How to reference and link to summary or text] The text was probably put onto the label to circumvent Dutch regulations for illicit drugs and psychoactive substances. Analyses of Explosion have demonstrated that the main ingredient of the liquid is the compound methylone (3,4-methylenedioxymethcathinone or 2-methylamino-1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)propan-1-one). 3,4-Methylenedioxymethcathinone (MDMCAT) is the benzylic ketone analogue of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA): it contains an additional oxygen atom at the benzylic position of the molecule ( Figure 1) (Cozzi et al., 1999). 3,4-Methylenedioxymethcathinone was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin. Because of the similarity of effects between methamphetamine and its benzylic ketone methcathinone, he examined whether there was a comparable connection between
MDMA and its benzylic analogue. He called the new substance methylone. [2] Methylone resembles MDMA in its behavioural profile, as methylone substitutes for MDMA in rats trained to discriminate MDMA from saline. Methylone does not substitute for amphetamine or for the hallucinogenic DOM in animals trained to discriminate between these drugs and saline (Dal Cason et al., 1997). Further, also in common with MDMA, methylone acts on monoaminergic systems. In vitro, methylone is threefold less potent than MDMA at inhibiting platelet serotonin accumulation and as potent as MDMA in its inhibiting effects on the dopamine and noradrenaline transporters (Cozzi et al., 1999). [1]